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The name or term "T-800" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see T-800 (disambiguation).

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I'll be back.
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The Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 Series 800 Terminator was sent by Skynet in 2029 to Los Angeles in 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, the future mother of John Connor, the leader of the future human Resistance. It was the first of the Infiltrators sent back on assassination missions by Skynet, and is arguably the single most significant Terminator unit as it inadvertently "fathered" Skynet in its journey through time, similar to how Kyle Reese fathered John Connor in his.

History[]

The Terminator[]

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The Terminator is an Infiltration unit, part man, part machine. Underneath is a hyperalloy combat chassis, micro processor controlled. Fully armoured. Very tough. But outside it's living human tissue: flesh, skin, hair, blood, grown for the cyborgs.
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- Kyle Reese describing the Terminator to Sarah Connor, The Terminator

After emerging from the time displacement sphere, at 1:52 AM on May 12, 1984 at the Griffith Observatory, the naked Terminator encountered three punks roaming the streets: Johnny, Rick, and Mark. It began to imitate what the punks were saying, before forcibly demanding their clothing and killing two of them[1][2] when they responded with aggression. At some unspecified time later, in the earlier hours of the morning, it went to a gun shop to acquire weapons for its mission, killing the shop's proprietor so it could pocket the ammunition. The Terminator then checked a phone book for a list of Sarah Connors, finding a total of three. It proceeded to kill Sarah Anne Connor and Sarah Louise Connor, before tracking down its intended target - Sarah Jeanette Connor — in a bar named Tech Noir. For his actions he was called "The Phone Book Killer" by the press. The Terminator nearly succeeded in killing her, but Kyle Reese - a soldier sent by the future John Connor to protect Sarah against the Terminator in the past helped Sarah to escape by delaying the Terminator. Because the Terminator was part of a newly developed line in the future that made advance detection near impossible, especially in the past, Reese was forced to wait until the Terminator approached Sarah before he could interfere in an attempt to "zero" her assailant.[3]

A chase ensued and the Terminator was injured in a car crash, damaging its arm and left eye. After removing the useless flesh eye (exposing the cybernetic optic underneath), the Terminator wore sunglasses so as to conceal its cybernetic eye and continue passing off as human. Armed with an assault rifle and shotgun, it then went to an LAPD police station to terminate Sarah, and while it went on a shooting spree which killed 17 police officers, it failed to eliminate Connor before she escaped with Kyle.

The Terminator later went after and murdered Sarah's mother, and by impersonating her over the phone, was able to trick Sarah into revealing her and Kyle's whereabouts at the Tiki Motel; but the two escaped again. The Terminator proceeded to pursue them on a high speed motorcycle through a tunnel, then tried to run Sarah down with a commandeered tanker truck, while Kyle inserted a pipe bomb to destroy it. However, while the truck was destroyed, the Terminator survived; its living tissue was burned away by the fire, but its endoskeleton had survived and continued functioning, with only a disabled left leg joint.

The Terminator chased Kyle and Sarah into a factory, where Kyle attempted to blow it up and was mortally wounded in the process; though the explosion succeeded in crippling the Terminator further by blowing its legs, pelvis and left hand off, its endoskeleton from the waist up still survived and continued crawling through the factory after Sarah. Sarah managed to trap the Terminator and activate a hydraulic press on it just as it was about to choke her to death; the press crushing and flattening the machine beyond repair. It was finally destroyed, leaving little more than the arm it had attempted to choke Sarah with. The Terminator

Deviating timelines[]

See also: T-800 (The Terminator)/Wreckage

Terminator 2: Judgment Day[]

Due to the reprogrammed T-800 sent to 1995 physically resembling its predecessor as both are CSM-101 Infiltrator, the surprised Nick Delaney as well as police detectives Mossberg and David Weatherby had believed the T-800 to be the same one from 1984. The two detectives even reviewed camera footage from 1984 and 1995. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle[]

In 2029 of Salvation timeline, before the Skynet main facility in Colorado was breached by the Resistance force led by John Connor, Dr. Serena Kogan programmed the Terminator to kill Sarah Connor and the Terminator travel to the past after it entered the Time Door. The Final Battle issue 5

Terminator Genisys[]

Main article: T-800 (The Terminator)/Genisys

Transformers Vs. the Terminator[]

This character article is a stub, it is missing information on its in-universe presence in the series. You can help Terminator Wiki by expanding it.
Main article: T-800 (Transformers vs. The Terminator)

Enemy of my Enemy issue 1

Personality[]

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It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
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- Kyle Reese telling Sarah how deadly the Terminator is.

In comparison to most other Terminators, who could exhibit emotional attachment, frustration, shock, fear and a sense of humor, the first T-800 was extremely emotionless, cold, violent and ruthless. It almost never showed any facial expression beyond a cold and flat face, and it usually only spoke when it meant to engage others for information or when it intended to throw unwanted attention off of itself. The T-800 was noted to have an "attitude problem", utilizing more pragmatic and blunt measures, such as tending to physically throw others out of its way to get past them or to use a phone booth. The T-800 was also very brutal and completely merciless, and was quick to kill when others in any way didn't cooperate with its plans and demands. Like most Terminators, the first T-800 was single-minded and inhumanly relentless in completing its mission at all costs, to the point that it continued its pursuit of Sarah Connor without giving up, even when it lost its skin sheath and its legs in the process.

Despite its almost-blank personality though, the Terminator did still possess just enough social information to calculate what the best verbal response with which to throw off unwanted attention was. It was also intelligent and resourceful enough to calculate multiple different methods of tracking down and/or killing Sarah Connor; from pursuing and murdering all Sarah Connors named in a phone book, to impersonating Sarah's mother over the phone in order to obtain her location, to attempting to run Sarah down with a commandeered truck.

Notes[]

  • Throughout most of the series, the Terminator has nicknames. He was nicknamed "The Phone Book Killer" by Ed Traxler.
  • The Terminator's wreckage shown on screen in Terminator 2: Judgment Day are the endoarm and a damaged CPU chip only. The whereabouts of the rest of the remains is unknown. However, in Terminator Revenge, it was stolen by a group of environmental scientists, while in The Terminator: 1984, it was destroyed by Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese, and Ben Oliver.
  • The T-800 endoskeleton holding a pipe bomb in its hip is used as the image for the T-831 "Heavy Combat Chassis", while the T-800 Endo face close-up after rising from fire is used as T-882 "Tactical Command Unit" from The Terminator Collectible Card Game.
  • Unlike the other T-800s seen through the series, this T-800's living tissue sheath appears to rot and suffer necrosis following the police station shootout (presumably the skin was not yet perfected). With other T-800s, their sheath regenerates over time from the damage over time and doesn't share the same effect even after suffering worse damage than this T-800 did.

Behind the Scenes[]

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Concept art of Lance Henriksen as T-800

  • Lance Henriksen and Jürgen Prochnow were originally cast in this role, but were passed over in favor of Schwarzenegger. O.J. Simpson was also considered, but was passed over by James Cameron because, ironically, he couldn't imagine "such a nice guy playing the part of a ruthless killer."
  • The T-800's human face was used as the digital make-up for the prototype T-800's face in the film Terminator Salvation.
  • The security camera images featuring the T-800 shown to Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day were not taken from the original film. They were new photographs of Schwarzenegger wearing the same clothes and Gargoyles sunglasses.



Merchandise[]

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Hot Toys[]

  • Battle Damaged T800 (1/6th scale collectible figure, 2005)
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    • Accessories: sunglasses, kit bag with padded shoulder strap, figure stand
Battle Damaged T800 at Hot Toys
  • T800 (1/6th scale collectible figure, 2010)
    • Product code: MMS136
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T800 at Hot Toys



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Appearances[]

Films[]

Comics[]

Novels[]

Games[]

Crossovers[]

References[]

  1. Quote from the novelization:
    Mark had the sense to start ripping his clothes off. He held out the coat as an offering, as a shield, as a desperate plea that maybe he could get a little more time...He was right. The offering did buy him time. About fourteen seconds.
  2. FAQ on jamescamerononline.com: What happened to the three punks?
    Ans: Kotex (Bill Paxton) was killed by hitting the fence with such strong impact, Rick was killed by Terminator's arm that sank into him, while Mark got was killed after he gave up his clothes.
  3. Quote from the film Kyle Reese: The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human - sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him.
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